Eyes open to a dull roar from an object going supersonic over my head, and I find myself on a battlefield of mud and rubble. Tracer fire creates ominous light shows in the sky as the soft glow of fires in the distance rage. ‘Am I reliving an old memory? Wait, I know this place!’ I look up just in time to see an explosion next to me and several bodies of men flying in several directions, with a smear of blood hitting my cheek, and a limb landing about a meter to my left.
I stand from my prone position and run. Running until my legs cannot take me further. passing plume after plume of mud and debris, and a building 100 meters away from me suddenly teeters and falls toward me. I look up and see the large pieces of rubble about the size of busses falling atop my position, forcing a lunge to the side to avoid one large piece the size of a car. I stand after a moment of laying on my chest with my head covered, only getting up when the debris stops falling around me, and then keep running. While I do not know where I am going, this feels vaguely like an old memory.
Gunfire and explosions rattle and boom around me as I keep sprinting, eventually sliding into a dugout. Upon which a few figures with masks concealing their face and combat helmets on their heads wheel around to stare at me before I take action, drawing my sidearm, and finishing one with two shots. One through his chest, the other through his head. He slumps over, falling into the mud like a puppet with the strings cut. His battle buddy grapples with me, and I struggle with him for my handgun as he pushes me back into the wall of the dugout into a metal plate bulwark on the trench wall.
Using my foot, and hooking it behind his calf, I shift my weight over, Bringing us both to the floor. I feel the splash of cold, watery mud soil my outfit, and I manage to pin him to the ground using my legs with his head locked between them. Facing the direction from where I felt two more potentially hostile bodies heading my way, They round a corner, wearing slightly different but equally utilitarian outfits. One is a tall male in his middle 30s and the other is a petite female in her late 20s.
They stop, point their rifles at us, and lower them on seeing me. At the sign of both of them no longer being a threat, but friendly, I direct the muzzle of my sidearm at my opponent’s head and pull the trigger. The bullet penetrates his helmet and enters his skull before coming out the other side, exiting through his skullcap and the back of his helmet with a hole larger than the entry hole. After the round impacts the metal bulwark, the two figures relax and I move the limp body off of me. The male offers me a hand “Jesus Kara, you scared the shit out of us.”
I take his hand, and with a firm grip, they help me up. I find myself speaking on my own “Thanks Jacko, where are the others?” Jacko lowers his head and shakes it “They did not make it. Cut down by a Feddy machine gun nest 2 blocks over.” I nod imperceptibly and sigh “I guess it is up to the three of us. ‘Becca? You broken?” the shorter woman shakes her head “Neg. All good. You look like shit.” I smirk “Yeah, but one kill for me. Sorry, I couldn't save you any.” I glance at the bodies behind me.
“We’re about 500 meters from their forward observation post that is directing their artillery. If you want to follow me, I am going to clear it. Jacko!” Jacko perks up at his name “Yes Ma’am?” I crinkle my nose “Find any ammunition or weapons we can use, preferably grenades and explosives. ‘Becca!!” Becca finally removes her helmet after fiddling with it. “Kara.” I sigh at the lax professionalism “Put your helmet back on! We’re in a hot zone and a lone sniper can-” Just as I start admonishing the corporal, a bullet hits the petite woman in the forehead, and a crack of the supersonic projectile rings in my ears. The bullet strikes the wall of the trench and Becca falls dead, her brain completely scrambled by the single bullet, creating a smear on the bulwark.
Jacko and I duck for cover, and I motion for my rifle laying on the ground nearby. Through my tinnitus, I can hear a voice. Jacko calling to ‘Becca. At the top of my lungs I yell “Becca is dead, Jacko! Leave her! We need to get out of the open or we’re both dead! Move your ass!!” we both stand and immediately sprint towards the bunker I emerged from and take shelter. Bullets sail past us, some barely miss me, and others are far off the mark. One hits Jacko in the leg and the man falls into a puddle of muddy water. He screams “AAGH FUCK! FEDDY SONS OF BITCHES!” I double back and start to help Jacko up..
Another bullet hits him in the back before we make it inside the nearby pillbox. Jacko’s breath is ragged and labored from fluid in his lungs. And he coughs up a bit of bloody saliva “Hey, listen. You tell my mom I love them.” I turn to look at Jacko as I scrounge for a medkit. “You’ll be fine Jacko! You always pull through! Don't quit on me now!” he takes another watery-sounding breath “Nah kid, I’m finished. Can feel it in my bones. Here…” Jacko offers me a hand, which I take after dropping the medical kit. “Just Remember, this war? It will kill us all if we do not stop shooting each other. Heh… Heh heh… heh.” Jack laughed at his brand of humor. Even on death’s door, he has the humor to share.
I felt a tear roll down my cheek. “Aw come on kid, don't go soft on me now. Listen. You survive this. For my sake. ‘Kay? Do whatever it takes, but you just survive! If you die now I will haunt you in whatever life lies beyond here. Look in my pockets, you’ll find a locket and a note. Take them. They are yours. And..” he groans, his words becoming more and more labored. “don't... forget about me..” with these final words, his hand goes limp in mine, and he stops moving.” I shut his eyelids and rip his dog tags away from his neck as the tears start to come, and my vision whites out.
Consciousness gradually returned, and along with it came memories. Memories of long-gone friends, a particularly familiar, undeterminable voice addressing me, as if from the Ether itself: 'You survive this. For my sake. ‘Kay? Do whatever it takes, but you just survive!' Through the haze and grogginess, my muscles ached. My nerves screaming in protest with pain as I attempt to move. But they did not move. Memories of what happened to me before I hit cryostasis flood back to me, and I remember one particular voice that echoes as a memory in my mind: 'Remember Kara, war never determines who is right, it only determines who is left.' The dull, numb sensation was slowly fading. Another memory of a voice flashes in my mind; offering advice 'Once you leave, make like a ghost, chica!' My eyesight returns, but everything is Murky and my vision transitions back and forth between foggy and blurry. The room I was in fades in from pure white. And my nerve endings suddenly start receiving signals from my brain. I could feel the cold metal on my skin, the heat of the outside of my chamber rushed in, and I felt gentle hands on my shoulders, pulling me out of my frigid entombment…
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My sense of hearing sharpened and sounds became more defined instead of a swirl of noise, and I hear noises, muffled. Distant. Voices. People. My vision focused. As my eyes adjusted slowly, the form of two shapes focused in my line of sight. They held two long objects. As my eyes refocused and went back and forth from intense light to darkness as my nervous system came out of stasis, my ears adjusted to the pressure inside the room and the voices became more legible.
A hand, my hand, reaches up to my face, pressing on my forehead to relieve the pressure pounding on my forehead. I groan and a shrill female voice calls to others in the room. “Oh stars, she is alive! Get the mistress!”
As I heard dulled footsteps rush out of the room, light, but purposeful, another pair of light footsteps got louder as they approached me. My head lulls to the side to look at the approaching figure. Still blurry, Only able to see an outline of their silhouette against the white-washed surroundings. My brain was slowly being flooded with sensory input from a strange but familiar sense. One that got more and more familiar as the seconds ticked by. I started to poke around the room with it. A scalpel on the tray next to my resting place. A potential weapon should I need one. The cryopod I had been in laid out on the floor nearby..it seemed they had just transferred my frozen body out of the pod onto an anti-gravity gurney.
I poke around with this regained sense, the aching muscles in my body finally jolted as the signals I had attempted to send to my body from my brain earlier finally fired off through my neurons and nerves, which had thawed out enough to work, and after a moment I finally settled after some brief spasms. Weakened by my time in stasis and the dehydrated state of being frozen for an extended period, and with a shaky arm resulting after the sudden shock of thawing of my body, I extended an arm out to the blurry figure nearby, and I struggled for words. Only getting one word out with difficulty. “W-w-w-at-er..” After I managed that much. The figure turned, looked at me, then silently fetched some water. Fetching a container of it, they let me drink for a few seconds. I guzzled down an amount that only made me crave more, but they pulled the container away and gently informed me, In a gentle voice. “If you drink too much, you will kill yourself. You are severely dehydrated. Rest. we mean you no harm, human.”
As my senses slowly came back, my sense of touch sharpened first, they had put a blanket over me to allow my body temperature to heat up. my sense of smell was next, the room had little fragrance in it, just the faint fragrance of an incense burning. It smelled of Altherian spice and herbal ingredients. Was I with the Altherians? Or was I somewhere else? Lastly, my vision came back to me. My heart sank when I saw who was in the room with me. Humanoids. Specifically the Iridians.
A humanoid species, with pointed ears, small feet, long legs, slender hourglass-shaped bodies with slanted, narrow eyes and thin lips, all Iridians had alabaster skin and olive-green hair, and were all female. The exception was their high-born nobility, who were distinguished with platinum-color hair. They usually were considered temptresses and vixens by Humans, with very delicate physiques, they relied on subterfuge, seduction, and deceit to achieve their goals. Not all were bad, in my experience. But dealing with Iridians comes with a catch, strings attached usually. What did they want from me? A wordless moan escaped my lips, my senses were overwhelmed, and my body felt stiff and aching, My muscles persistently protested with every movement I willed them to do.
Nevertheless, I forcibly willed my body to throw my legs over the side of the gurney and stand. Almost immediately the attendant rushed over to try to coax me to lay back down with a gentle push of her hand. “Rest. The cryostasis has weakened you and you need time to recover. We had to pull you out suddenly or you would not have survived.” the woman sighed softly and after a moment of silence, she inquired with me “What is your name?”
I searched my mind for a reply but refused to give them my real name.. So I settled on a pseudonym. “My… My name.. Is… Elise…” I managed to say with a ragged breath, my lungs still thawing out some.
“Elise, please, lay down and rest. My mistress will see you when you are ready to talk.” the Iridian smiled at me and helped me lay back down, re-covering my body with the blanket. “We truly mean you no harm, please believe me” She smiled at me again for a moment and went back about her work. I closed my eyes to rest.
When I opened them, A white ceiling with white-colored artificial light greeted my eyes. I sat up slowly, mindful of the aches and pains I still had from my bones not being fully thawed out yet. Looking around, there was a tray of surgical tools, human ones, nearby. Along with these, the Cryopod I had spent what felt like an eternity in was on the floor with the glass pane smashed to pull me out of the pod quickly. “They did not waste any time.” I mused out loud.
“That is because you were going to die if we tried to pry it open.” Another feminine voice replied from my left, I turned my head and immediately saw the owner of the voice. Another Iridian woman with darker hair, this time Teal. this mysterious Iridian was different from the others, but how? She elaborated “Your cryopod was damaged. A meteorite struck your shuttle and killed the other two pod occupants with you. Were you close to those men?” I shook my head no in reply before she continued “my name is Farsa, and any other Iridian would have you return the favor of saving your life, but I am not going to take advantage of your situation, and we have many more problems than a human woman who was adrift and dying.”
This was a revelation to me, and I shoved my surprise down, showing no expression to indicate that. Instead, I put on a blank expression. A front. Something I learned to do well from the time spent in the military. “So let me get this straight, you are letting me go, no strings attached?” The Iridian woman gazed at me a long moment “I am, but if you wish to assist us, I will not turn down the help, and I will compensate you fairly for your assistance.” she stood “Take some time to think over it, I will be somewhere on the ship. And miss Elise?” she gave me one last glance “welcome aboard the IIS Valdara.” she leaves right after that, her long flowing hair trailing behind her.